Railway truck



J M, 1951 H. M. PFLAGER RAILWAY TRUCK Filed May 22, 1946 INVENTOR: HARRY M.PFLA.GER

FIG 3 ATTRNEY Patented Jan. 16, 1951 RAILWAY TRUCK Harry M. Pflager. St. Louis, Mo., assignor to General Steel Castings Corporation, Granite City, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application May 22, 1946, Serial No. 671,559 Claims. (Cl. 105-190) The invention relates to railway rolling stock, and more particularly to railway trucks of the type in which the load supporting bolster is carried by springs positioned near the opposite ends of the bolster, and the bolster, the bolster springs and the support for the bolster springs have movement laterally of the truck, relative to the truck frame, to accommodate track irregularities, altemate tangent and curved track,' switches and other conditions tending to create side thrusts between the vehicle body and truck.

The ordinary truck is provided with swing hangers to take care of heavy lateral shocks but other minor shocks caused by hunting of the wheel on the rail or by minor low spots in the track are not suflicient to move the swing hangers, and such shocks are transmitted from the truck through the bolster to the car body.

It is the object of this invention to absorb these minor lateral vibrations by means of rubber pads, thereby preventing such minor shocks from being carried to the car body.

Another object of the invention is to have the rubber cushions placed in the spring plank under the bolster spring to absorb shocks and leave the underside of the spring plank unchanged from the usual structure which provides for applying shims between the spring plank and the swing hanger bottom cross bar, thus making it possible to shim up the spring plank to adjust the height due to a weakened spring without removing the rubber or spring from the spring plank. A more specific object of the invention is to increase the lateral flexibility of a railway truck equipped with swing hangers by providing limited relative lateral movement between the bolster and spring plank by means of a yieldable pad positioned therebetween and which absorbs small shocks completely and damps shocks of larger magnitude.

- distortion of the yieldable pad when forces tend to shift the truck laterally of the bolster.

The truck includes wheels I, axles 2, journal boxes 3 which support equalizers I in which are mounted truck springs 5 which carry a truck frame 6. The truck is of the lateral motion bolster type and has pairs of swing hangers 1 at opposite sides "of the truck pivotally suspended from frame 6 by pins 8. Each pair of hangers I carry a cross-bar 9 on which is mounted a bearing l0 carrying a spacer II which supports the adjacent end of a spring plank l2. Near the ends of spring plank l2 are mounted coil springs I 3 which support a bolster it having center plate Ila on which is mounted the vehicle body (not shown).

Each end of spring plank i 2 has recesses 15, the sides of which are inclined upwardly and outwardly. Yieldable pads iii are mounted in recesses l5 and the lower ends of the pads fit snugly in the lower portions of the recesses. A spring seat I! is mounted on the pads at the end of the spring plank and has lugs 20 positioning the associated pads relative to the spring seat. In providing pad l6 between spring plank l2 and bolster spring seat H, the pad is not subject to any distortion laterally because of the inclination of swing hangers 1 from the vertical.

' By positioning pads l6 and spring seat I! in re- These and other detail objects as will appear from the following description are attained by the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is in part a side elevation and in part a longitudinal vertical section of a railway truck constructed according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a detailed transverse vertical section drawn to an enlarged scale taken approximately on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a detail top view of the bolster spring support drawn to an enlarged scale and is approximately on the line 33 of Figure 1, and

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing cess l5, as shown, springs l3 may be removed, without removing pads l8, by jacking bolster It a distance only slightly exceeding the free height of the springs.

Each yieldable pad lfi comprises alternate layers of steel l8 and rubber l9 bonded together and adapted to distort as shown in Figure 4 when forces are exerted thereon in opposite directions laterally of the truck. The sides Ida of recesses l5 are inclined sufilciently to permit such distortion of pads i6. Lateral distortion of pads I 8 under shearing forces is limited by spring seats I! engaging spring plank I2 at the boundaries of recesses I5. The resistance of pads H; to a limited amount of distortion under shear preferably is less than the force required to overcome the static friction between hangers 7 and their pins 8 and between cross-bars 9 and bearings III as is necessary to cause pivotal movement of swing hangers I. Hence, pads l6 absorb completely transverse shocks of insufiicient force to move hangers 1 on their pivots. In addition, they damp shocks of larger magnitude, suflicient to cause lateral swinging action of the swing hangers and further movement of truck frame 8 relative to bolster l4, thereby tending to preassaaso vent or reduce swaying and lurching of the car body. The swinging action of the swing hangers also tends to produce increasing resistance to the movement of truck frame 6 relative to bolster l4.

Pads l6 improve the riding qualities of the car by absorbing completely lesser lateral shocks insufllcient to produce movement of swing hangers 1, without transmitting such shocks to the car body, and by cushioning lateral shocks of greater magnitude. Such lesser shocks are generally encountered when riding 'at high speed on tracks having small irregularities.

Details of construction may be varied substantially without departing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of novel structure as described as coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. In a railway truck including a spring plank, a bolster and a bolster supporting spring, said spring plank having a recess formed therein, distortive means supporting said spring from said spring plank and positioned in' said recess, said means being yieldable laterally of the truck to provide transverse movement of the spring plank relative to the bolster, said means fitting snugly in the lower portion of said recess and the sides of said recess being inclined upwardly and outwardly to accommodate lateral yielding of the upper portion of said means.

2. In a railway truck including a truck frame, swing hangers pivotally suspended therefrom, a spring plank supported from said hangers, a bolster and a bolster supporting spring, said spring plank having an upwardly opening recess formed therein, a spring seat to receive and support said spring and positioned in said recess, means supporting said spring seat from said spring plank the lower portion of said means being snugly received in the'bottom of said recess and its upper portion being substantially smaller in diameter than the upper portion of said recess and positioned in said recess also, said means being yieldable laterally of the truck to provide limited transverse movement of the spring plank relative to the bolster to absorb transverse shocks of insuillcient force to move said hangers on their pivots, lateral yieldability of said means being limited by said spring seat engaging said spring plank at the boundaries of the upper portion of said recess when shocks of greater magnitude cause said hangers to pivot.

3. In a railway truck, a bolster, a bolster supporting spring, a mounting for said spring including a cushion of rubber-like material of suflicient height to provide for substantial relative displacement of its upper and lower faces when the same are subjected to thrusts in opposite directions transversely of the spring vertical axis, a spring seat on said cushion having a downwardly facing recess snugly fitting around the upper end of said cushion, a truck part having an upwardly facing 4 recess opposing said downwardly facing recess, the sides of the lower part of the upwardly facing recess fitting snugly around the sides of the lower end of said cushion, the sides otthe upper. part of the upwardly facing recess being offset from the sides of the lower part of the recess and spaced from the sides of said cushion so that the major portion of said cushion normally is spaced from the sides of said recesses and the cushion is free to distort laterally to a limited extent only to accommodate predetermined restricted relative lateral movements of said spring seat and said truck part.

4. In a railway truck including a spring plank, a bolster and a bolster supporting spring, a spring seat closely surrounding the lower end of said spring, there being an upwardly opening and up- 1 wardly flaring recess in said spring plank receiving said spring seat, means in said recess with at least a part spaced from the sides thereof and supporting said spring seat in said recess and yielding laterally of the truck to provide limited transverse movement of the spring seat, spring and bolster relative to the spring plank to absorb small transverse shocks, the upper portions of the sides of said recess opposing said spring seat to limit lateral movement of said spring seat relative to said spring plank.

5. In a railway truck including a spring plank, a bolster and a bolster supporting spring, means supporting said spring from said spring plank and comprising horizontal layers of rubber-like material with intermediate plates bonded thereto and arranged to move relative to each other in parallel planes under thrusts applied transversely of the truck and placing the layers under shear, the lower portion of said supporting means being held against movement laterally of the truck relative to the spring plank, there being sufiicient clearance at the sides of said means and about the lower end of the spring to accommodate lateral shifting of at least some of said intermediate plates, and corresponding lateral shifting of the bolster, relative to the spring plank.

H. M. PFLAGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 914,889 Spencer Mar. 9, 1909 1,762,886 OBrien June 10, 1930 1,886,533 Davis Nov. 8, 1932 1,911,330 Symington May 30, 1933 1,916,149 Hedgcock June 27, 1933 1,924,237 Glascodine Aug. 30, 1933 2,163,253 Anderson June 20, 1939 2,241,418 Nystrom et a1 May 13, 1941 2,242,212 Hankins May 20, 1941 ,317,398 Nystrom et al Apr. 27, 1943 

